USPTO Patents Application 10769681

United States Patent and Trademark Office

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450

Alexandria, Virginia 223 13-1450
www.uspto.gov

APPLICATION NO.

FILING DATE

FIRST NAMED INVENTOR

ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.

10/769,681

01/30/2004

23640 7590 05/01/2006

BAKER BOTTS, LLP
910 LOUISIANA
HOUSTON, TX 77002-4995

William Kit Dean

066543.0114

8537

EXAMINER

LE, TO AN M

ART UNIT

PAPER NUMBER

2863

DATE MAILED: 05/01/2006

Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.

PTO-90C (Rev. 10/03)

Office Action Summary

Application No.

10/769,681

Applicant(s)
DEAN, WILLIAM KIT

Fxaminpr

^ Aul 1 1 1 1 1 CI

Toan M. Le

Art Unit

2863

- The MAILING DATE of this communication appears on the cover sheet with the correspondence address -

Period for Reply

A SHORTENED STATUTORY PERIOD FOR REPLY IS SET TO EXPIRE 1 MONTH(S) OR THIRTY (30) DAYS,
WHICHEVER IS LONGER, FROM THE MAILING DATE OF THIS COMMUNICATION.

- Extensions of time may be available under the provisions of 37 CFR 1 .136(a). In no event, however, may a reply be timely filed
after SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- If NO period for reply is specified above, the maximum statutory period will apply and will expire SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- Failure to reply within the set or extended period for reply will, by statute, cause the application to become ABANDONED (35 U.S.C. § 133).
Any reply received by the Office later than three months after the mailing date of this communication, even if timely filed, may reduce any
earned patent term adjustment. See 37 CFR 1.704(b).

Status

I) ^ Responsive to communication(s) filed on 30 January 2004 .
2a)D This action is FINAL. 2b)Q This action is non-final.

3) D Since this application is in condition for allowance except for formal matters, prosecution as to the merits is

closed in accordance with the practice under Ex parte Quayle, 1 935 CD. 1 1 , 453 O.G. 21 3.

Disposition of Claims

4) E3 Claim(s) 1-67 is/are pending in the application.

4a) Of the above claim(s) is/are withdrawn from consideration.

5) D Claim(s) is/are allowed.

6) D Claim(s) is/are rejected.

7) D Claim(s) is/are objected to.

8) E3 Claim(s) 1-67 are subject to restriction and/or election requirement.

Application Papers

9) D The specification is objected to by the Examiner.

10)K The drawing(s) filed on 30 January 2004 is/are: a)S accepted or b)D objected to by the Examiner.
Applicant may not request that any objection to the drawing(s) be held in abeyance. See 37 CFR 1 .85(a).
Replacement drawing sheet(s) including the correction is required if the drawing(s) is objected to. See 37 CFR 1.121(d).

II) D The oath or declaration is objected to by the Examiner. Note the attached Office Action or form PTO-152.

Priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119

12)D Acknowledgment is made of a claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) or (f).
a)D All b)D Some * c)D None of:

1 .□ Certified copies of the priority documents have been received.

2. D Certified copies of the priority documents have been received in Application No. .

3. D Copies of the certified copies of the priority documents have been received in this National Stage

application from the International Bureau (PCT Rule 17.2(a)).
* See the attached detailed Office action for a list of the certified copies not received.

Attachment(s)

1) □ Notice of References Cited (PTO-892) 4) □ Interview Summary (PTO-413) *

2) □ Notice of Draftsperson's Patent Drawing Review (PTO-948) Paper No(s)/Mail Date. .

3) IE Information Disclosure Statement(s)(PTO-1 449 or PTO/SB/08) 5 ) □ Notice of Informal Patent Application (PTO-1 52)

Paper No(s)/Mail Date 1/30/04 . 6) □ Other: .

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
PTOL-326 (Rev. 7-05)

Office Action Summary

Part of Paper No./Mail Date 20060424

Application/Control Number: 1 0/769,68 1 Page 2

Art Unit: 2863

•

DETAILED ACTION

Election/Restrictions
This application contains claims directed to the following patentably distinct species:
Group I, claims 1-15, drawn to an apparatus/process/method for calculating and

displaying 3D seismic classification features (paragraph [0049]).

Group II, claims 16-23, drawn to an apparatus for locating an underground structure

(paragraph [0053]).

Group IE, claims 24 and 42-43, drawn to a method/program storage device/computer
program product for generating a map displaying a set of geologic characteristics (paragraph
[0054]).

Group IV, claims 25-33, drawn to a method of developing a cardinality transformation
(paragraph [0055]).

Group V, claims 34-41, drawn to a method of data fusion (paragraphs [0057] and
[0058]).

Group VI, claims 44-67, drawn to an apparatus for mining underground structure
(paragraph [0061]).

The species are independent or distinct because the inventions require a different field of
search (see MPEP § 808.02), and have acquired a separate status in the art because of their
recognized divergent subject matter.

Applicant is required under 35 U.S. C. 121 to elect a single disclosed species for
prosecution on the merits to which the claims shall be restricted if no generic claim is finally
held to be allowable. Currently, none is generic.

Application/Control Number: 1 0/769,68 1 Page 3

Art Unit: 2863

Applicant is advised that a reply to this requirement must include an identification of the
species that is elected consonant with this requirement, and a listing of all claims readable
thereon, including any claims subsequently added. An argument that a claim is allowable or that
all claims are generic is considered nonresponsive unless accompanied by an election.

Upon the allowance of a generic claim, applicant will be entitled to consideration of
claims to additional species which depend from or otherwise require all the limitations of an
allowable generic claim as provided by 37 CFR 1.141. If claims are added after the election,
applicant must indicate which are readable upon the elected species. MPEP § 809.02(a).

A telephone call was made to Ronald Chichester on 4/24/06 to request an oral election to
the above restriction requirement, but did not result in an election being made.

Applicant is advised that the reply to this requirement to be complete must include (i) an
election of a species or invention to be examined even though the requirement be traversed (37
CFR 1.143) and (ii) identification of the claims encompassing the elected invention.

The election of an invention or species may be made with or without traverse. To reserve
a right to petition, the election must be made with traverse. If the reply does not distinctly and
specifically point out supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election shall be treated
as an election without traverse.

Should applicant traverse on the ground that the inventions or species are not patentably
distinct, applicant should submit evidence or identify such evidence now of record showing the
inventions or species to be obvious variants or clearly admit on the record that this is the case. In
either instance, if the examiner finds one of the inventions unpatentable over the prior art, the
evidence or admission may be used in a rejection under 35 U.S. C. 103(a) of the other invention.

Application/Control Number: 1 0/769,68 1 Page. 4

Art Unit: 2863

Conclusion

Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the
examiner should be directed to Toan M. Le whose telephone number is (571) 272-2276. The
examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday from 9:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M..

If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's
supervisor, John Barlow can be reached on (571) 272-2269. The fax phone number for the
organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.

Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent
Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications
may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished
applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR
system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR
system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).

Toan Le
April 24, 2006

BRYAN BUI
PRIMARY EXAMINER